Facts & faces

Staff and wire reports

Updated 12:53 am, Sunday, March 10, 2013

Photo: Mike Ehrmann

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

DORAL, FL - MARCH 09: Tiger Woods makes birdie on the second hole during the third round of the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship at the Trump Doral Golf Resort & Spa on March 9, 2013 in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) less

DORAL, FL - MARCH 09: Tiger Woods makes birdie on the second hole during the third round of the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship at the Trump Doral Golf Resort & Spa on March 9, 2013 in Doral, ... more

Photo: Mike Ehrmann

Facts & faces

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

DORAL, Fla. — Tiger Woods hit a tee shot that got stuck in a palm tree. That's about the only thing that went wrong for him Saturday in the Cadillac Championship.

Woods made seven more birdies on the Blue Monster, the last one from 15 feet on the 18th hole for a 5-under 67. That gave him a four-shot lead over Graeme McDowell, and put Woods in great position to win a World Golf Championship for the first time since 2009.

McDowell was six shots behind with three holes to play when he chipped in for eagle on the 16th and closed with a two-putt par from 85 feet.

More golf: Fabian Gomez of Argentina opened with six birdies on the front nine for a 7-under 65 and a share of the lead with Scott Brown going into the final round of the Puerto Rico Open. Brown had a 67 to join Gomez in the lead.

Skiing: Ted Ligety of the United States won his fifth giant slalom of the season to clinch the World Cup discipline title with a race to spare. It's his fourth GS title after winning in 2008 and 2010-11. He also successfully defended his GS title at the world championships last month. ... Anna Fenninger of Austria won a World Cup giant slalom, while overall champion Tina Maze became the first woman to make eight GS podiums in one season. Fenninger protected her lead from the first run in 2 minutes, 29.39 seconds and finish 0.44 ahead of Maze, who had already clinched the overall and giant slalom titles. Julia Mancuso of the United States was eighth after finishing 2.85 off the pace. ... Thomas Wallisch of the United States won the slopestyle the freestyle skiing world championships, beating James Woods of Britain.

Speedskating: American speedskater Heather Richardson has clinched the overall World Cup title. She was 11th in the final 1,000-meter race, won by Olympic champion Christine Nesbitt of Canada. Richardson won her second World Cup title in three years. The 23-year-old from West Valley, Utah, won four of the seven 1,000 races this season.

Cross-country skiing: Kikkan Randall of the United States clinched the cross-country World Cup sprint title by edging Norwegian world champion Marit Bjoergen at the line in the Lahti Ski Games in Finland.

Snowboarding: Nate Holland of the United States finished second in the World Cup snowboard competition in Switzerland.

Boxing: Bernard Hopkins became the oldest boxer to win a major title, scoring a 12-round unanimous decision over Tavoris Cloud to claim the IBF light heavyweight title. The 48-year-old Hopkins broke the record he set by beating Jean Pascal for the WBC light heavyweight title in 2011.

NFL: The Pittsburgh Steelers have released linebacker James Harrison after the team and the hard-hitting defensive star failed to agree on a new contract. Harrison was voted AP's NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2008.

Local: David Kastner of RPI earned All-America honors in the 60-meter hurdles at the Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships in Naperville, Ill. Kastner finished eighth in 8.36 seconds for his first national honor. Terrence Gibson of Worcester State won the race in 8.04 seconds.